Boolean operators are words or characters used to concatenate parts of a search query using Boolean logic. While each part of the chain of parts is evaluated individually, the whole chain, defined by the operators, needs to be true for a search result to get listed. Boolean operators work only when search file contents, not file names.
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AND, BUT, +, & : Logical And
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OR, | : Logical Or
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NOT, -, ! : Logical Not
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~ : Proximity to match partial words/substrings, too (otherwise only complete words are accepted). Placed in front of the search word
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XOR, EOR, ^ : Logical Exclusive Or
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NEAR : Matches words within a range of ten words
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NEAR/n : Matches words within a range of n words
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AFTER, BEFORE, NEXT : Matches words appearing before or after each other. Can be combined with /n, see NEAR/n.
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() : Parenthesis, groups parts of the query logically
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"" : Phrases, find exactly the string in the quotes; phrases can contain the '*' operator.
Example:
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steve AND jobs : Matches everything containing both 'steve' and 'jobs' regardless of their position.
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~DEVONtech : Matches 'DEVONtech' as well as 'DEVONtechnologies'
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steve BEFORE/2 jobs : Matches 'Steve Jobs' as well as 'Steve P. Jobs' or 'Steve looks for jobs'.
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"Steve Jobs" : Matches only exactly the string 'Steve Jobs'.
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